PRESS NOTE ON

PERCEIVED ADEQUACY OF FOOD
CONSUMPTION IN INDIAN HOUSEHOLDS, 2004-05

MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Dated
the 9 Phalguna, 1928 Saka

28thFebruary, 2007

PRESS NOTE

PERCEIVED ADEQUACY OF FOOD CONSUMPTION IN INDIAN
HOUSEHOLDS, 2004-05

Report No. 512 on “Perceived Adequacy of Food
Consumption In Indian Households, 2004-05” based on the
seventh quinquennial survey on Household Consumer Expenditure carried out in the NSS 61st round (July, 2004-June, 2005) by the
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation has been released.This is one of the reports in a series of seven reports to be
brought out on the basis of the survey. The report is based on the data collected on perception of Indian households with
regard to availability of food throughout the year. The data is based on three statuses of perception i.e. ‘getting enough food throughout the year’ (food adequate in all
months), ‘not getting enough food in
some months’ (food inadequate in some months of the year) and ‘not getting enough food every day in any
month of the year’ (food inadequate in all the months). All
the data are provided separately for rural and urban sectors and for each
State/UT.

Like all
regular NSS surveys, the present survey covered practically the whole of the
Indian Union. All States and UnionTerritories were covered
under the survey. The survey was spread over 7999 villages and 4602 urban blocks covering 79298 rural
and 45346 urban households respectively.

Some findings of the survey are
highlighted below:

This
report presents data on perception of Indian households by daily
availability of enough food during the last 365 days based on a sample of 79298 households and 403207
persons in the rural area and 45346 households and 206529 persons in urban
area.

In rural areas, the percentage of
households where all the members reported enough food every day throughout
the year rose from 94.5% to 97.4% during the period from 1993-94 to
2004-05.

In urban areas, the percentage of
households getting enough food every day throughout the year increased
from 98.1% to 99.4% over the period from1993-94
to 2004-05.

In rural areas, the ‘agricultural
labour’ households reported the highest proportion of perceived seasonal
inadequacy of food. The households ‘self-employed in agriculture’ showed
the lowest percentage of seasonal inadequacy of food.

·Among the social groups, the
percentage, in rural areas, of households not getting enough food every day in
some months of the year was the highest for the ST households (3.7%), followed
by SC households (3.3%). However, in urban areas, the corresponding percentages
were equal and lower than their rural counterparts.

The percentage of rural households
‘not having enough food every day in some months’ was the highest in West Bengal (10.6%) followed by Orissa (4.8%) and the
lowest in the States of Haryana and Rajasthan. In rural area, Assam
reported the highest percentage of households (3.6%) ‘not getting enough
food every day in all months of the year’ followed by Orissa and West Bengal (1.3%) as per the perception of field
officials. In the urban area the highest percentage was reported by Assam (2.1%), followed by Bihar
(1.1%).

Among the different types of ration
card holders the Antodaya Card holders had highest percentage of ‘not
having enough food everyday in some months of the year’ followed by BPL
cardholders in the rural area . However, BPL card holders reported higher
percentage of seasonal inadequacy of food than Antodaya Card holders in
the urban area.

·In the rural areas, the
proportion of households reporting inadequacy of food was higher during the
months from December to March than in other months. In the urban areas, such
inadequacy was reported from December to February but by a much lower
percentage of households.